Blessings from Above

strikes... AGAIN. I've come to realise the pattern - I stir in my sleep because #2 is stirring (he kicks, he stretches, he grunts). I get up and offer him milk (and gets rejected). the orchestra in the bedroom keeps me awake and my mind starts working over time again. Too much to do, too little (me) time to do. I get out of bed, enter the study room and boot up my laptop once again.

Inspired by my friend who runs a blog shop  (pls support her!), i wiped the dust off my sewing machine (wedding gift from my mom, probably last used to sew for #1 when she was born) and set out to make a security blanket & pillow cases for #2 (to be fair to both of them). here's the final product (with some help from my mom)... not good enough to start taking orders for sure (and don't intend to - i do want to make some as gifts though) but i'm mighty pleased with the result and since i bought plenty of ribbons, i also made a adjustable nursing cover clip for myself to use if i need to nurse #2 which can also be used to convert napkins into bibs when dining out with #1. what do you think? by the way, its obvious that the layout looks different now - am trying a new look by creating my own blog skin... not very successful yet (afterall, I've not been coding for years now) but will keep trying!

saw this in our local daily today.... well, lady if you need OFFICIAL reports to tell you NOT to leave your child unattended... here it is! how appropriate... :P if u need to read the article, email me - i have it in PDF.

I am a product of the "much-debated" bilingual policy of this country but before I go on, let me first clarify - I HATED mandarin classes. ok, maybe HATE is too strong a word but I really had no affinity with the language nor the teachers that taught it. the methods used still leave a bitter taste in my mouth because I have such a goldfish memory (no '听写' & '墨写' for me pls!). I practically slept through all the classes then - I can still vividly see my teachers shaking their heads vigorously at me because of my learning attitude towards the language. in the end though, I still got a distinction for the subject. Coming from a supposedly '华校' (or chinese school) where taking higher chinese is the norm, rather than the exception and many even taking an additional foreign language for the 'o' levels, I have to say that this 'exposure' to the language is something I am proud of. Up till today, I can still read, write and speak fluent...

I finally lost all the weight that i've gained since having 2 kids - lest you all think I've been on a diet... I did not! I eat more than the stipulated 3 meals a day PLUS decadent indulgences like this (though I do restrict myself NOT to finish the entire packet at one sitting)... and carrying my children and going for walks are the only exercises that I have time for... so how did I do it? LACTATE! Truly, bfing is the best way to lose weight! I lost abt 12kg so far (put on 7kg for this pregnancy) but alas, still far from the ' Heidi Klum league '! next target? pre-marriage weight!

we visited kids explorer @ downtown east y'day, together with mummy D & jesse. half way through our playtime, i noticed a familiar face... he was running amok all by himself at the indoor playground for a good half hour and we are talking about a toddler here, who has yet turn 4. i'm appalled that there was no adult around AT ALL to supervise him. at first, i thought it was his play school that brought him there and was wondering which irresponsible school would leave a toddler to play all by himself but found out today, that it was actually his MOTHER who left him alone to play there (while she went to get lunch). granted, there are other adults around but seriously who would be bothered with another person's kid if they have their own kid(s) to mind, until the accident (if any) happens? of course, you may say that the indoor playground is relatively safe but ACCIDENTS do happen, otherwise why are they called ACCIDENTS and why would the playground have a 'no liabi...

our beloved fur-kid left us for a better place last evening and i've created a blog to remember him forever.... http://chewyourbeloved.blogspot.com

warning: graphic post i've always thought that bfing gets easier (& better) with subsequent children - because you are supposed to know what to do already! unfortunately though, i am still dodged by the same problems 2nd time round... its largely because my li'l prince decides that night feeds are not important & me, being the 'lazy' one, choosing sleep over clearing the milk ducts... now i'm in so much pain that i'm close to shouting out my entire vocabulary of expletives at the top of my voice! doesn't help that dh doesn't appreciate nor empathise with me! and oh, that's milk tinged with blood by the way & not strawberry milk! i had to use needles to poke and try to find the blocked ducts - that's the reason for the blood. no fun at all... i gave up after 15 mins w/o finding all the spots.

sorry i've been so slack in posting entries - can't really find the time to do anything else amidst caring for 2 kids and getting enough sleep. i shall attempt to complete these back entries (not in chronological order) over the weekend... so check on back later! - Chace's full month parties - swimming playdate - Jvel's birthday party - polliwog playdate - swimming playdate @ the club

Are you very different from your other siblings? My two babies are as different as chalk and cheese! Both in appearance and in behavior… but why? from the same factory leh... They may look identical but Claire is fair skinned, petite & lightweight whereas Chace is rather dark skinned at this point, tall, stout & heavyweight. In fact, Chace’s face is now almost as big as Claire’s (He is 6kg+ now @ 2 months’ old). As DH aptly put it – lucky the girl is thin and the boy is fat and not the other way around. We do want to marry Claire off some day! Claire used to wake up every hour or so for milk in the initial months, thus totally disrupting my sleeping schedule. She is a ‘small-eater’ as she takes sips of milk each time she nurses whereas Chace tanks up each time he does. As a result, he is (almost) sleeping through the night from as early as a month ago, waking up only once or twice and its not even to feed – he won’t even open his mouth when I offer him milk – he just wants ...

The last two months was probably very trying for Claire as she adjusts to the addition of a new family member – heck, I think it was trying even for us! Once the only child, she is now an elder sister. She has shown clear affection for her little brother – fussing over him (“mummy, didi is crying”), giving him heaps of hugs & kisses and even helping us take care of him (bringing wipes & diapers when he needs a change, drying his hair after his bath, etc) but having to share our attention ‘so suddenly’ is probably something she never really expected even though we made an effort to prepare her right from the start. As a result of this ‘shared attention’ or maybe to her - ‘a lack of attention’, she suddenly turned into this annoying, attention seeking little gal who cries and whines over every little thing. We have lost our tempers at her numerous times because of this behavior and when that happens, I sometimes wonder if we expect too much from her? She is after all, just a li...

many years ago, a little girl got bitten on the face because she disturbed her sister's poodle... NO PHOTOS AVAILABLE twenty four years later... her daughter gets bitten on the face because she disturbed the family shih-tzu... immediately after being bitten (slightly bruised on the cheek) two days later (visible teeth marks - bruised cheeks) yes, the little girl was me... moral of the story, never disturb dogs (no matter what breed)! don't call animal control, the human was at fault. fortunately, Chewy didn't bite down hard and Claire didn't bleed. dh is of the opinion that Chewy should be castrated because of his recent aggressive behavior but I'm not so sure...

can you tell which baby is Claire and which is Chace?

our group of mummy friends finally managed another meet up after a REALLY long time - our 'excuse' this time? to celebrate mid-autumn festival together again (its another week away actually). our li'l ones have grown tremendously since last year & its great to see everyone again... and some of our families have grown larger too! let's hope we can continue to do this many more years! last year this year spotted any difference? went through my old entries (and photos) and realised that i didn't write about this last year (neither did i take any pictures!) - wonder why?? anyway, we had a pot-luck session like last year and everyone contributed yummy food - unfortunately, the satay/otah/muffins did not make their 'appearance' coz two families didn't turn up!  

we were off to sentosa this afternoon to celebrate Jvel's 1st birthday - mummy T obviously put in a lot of effort planning the party - from choosing the venue, to preparing the goody bags for the kids, down to dressing up (herself & her babe) and not forgetting, (trying) to co-ordinate the ice-cream orders for the guests (tough job i know!). i believe that it was a special & memorable afternoon for all, as we celebrate Jvel turning one... hope the birthday gal enjoyed all the attention and the presents showered on her & thanks for inviting us - we had fun! above photos 'borrowed' from mummy T's faceboook photo album

li'l J loves 'splashy' and we love having mummy D and li'l J over! most of our li'l friends have started school (or playgroup) or stay too far away to join us so that leaves just the four (now 5!) of us for playdates most of the time! i do wish the others can join us some time... today marks the first time Chace is joining us but since he's too 'young' to swim, all I did was dip his feet into the pool water but the minute his feet touched the water, he started screaming and crying - he hates bathtime too, just like when Claire was his age; must be an infant thing! so he spent the rest of the time lounging by the pool side with me!

Like Claire, Chace had more than one full month party - only because both of them are blessed with so many people who love them. At our place, we hosted our friends & (my extended) family in one session (as opposed to two when we had Claire) because its just too tiring to be entertaining for such a long stretch of time. At my in-law's place, we had another session to host hb's side of the family. When the crowd started streaming into the function room, we were able to take photos with some of our guests but once it got too crowded (and busy), we totally neglected the photo-taking so thousand apologises to those who came but did not manage to get a photo with us! Its funny how I got so busy the whole morning (cooking for the children as I couldn't find any caterer that would also provide food for my little guests) that I forgot to get my helper to collect the party balloons - the lady boss was frantically calling and trying to reach me the whole afternoon. I didn'...

4 weeks have gone by in a flash! look forward to partying the whole weekend! what have we been up to?? adjusting mostly - trying to fit one child's schedule into the other. not easy... will blog when we finally settle in with our new schedules...

i armed myself with 3 confinement cook books (+ bookmarked a couple of websites with confinement receipes) this time round since i anticipated no help whatsoever but until now, i have not really had the chance to use them. i've had someone bring me food (almost) every day. i feel really pampered and blessed to have so many who care for me (and my stomach). interestingly though, i do not really feel hungry even though i am nursing two. nevertheless, i enjoy slurping the soups (though they makes me perspire profusely each time) & yummy food that have been lovingly prepared by my mom (actually her helper), my mil (actually also the helper) and even my sis' mil (herself)! other than that, i am so thankful that my parents willingly looked after #1 for me every morning last week (dh was then on half day leave) and having my mil pop by every morning this week to entertain #1 for a couple of hours, which gave me some time to breathe (& rest). going forward though, i will ne...

without a doubt, my life has changed drastically - from the mom of a 2 yr+ toddler to a mom with a newborn & a 2 yr+ toddler. i have to work on my daily schedule from scratch - fitting in the newborn's feeding & sleeping timing with #1's schedule. fortunately, #2 has been good so far - he feeds well (bfing seems easier with subsequent children) and sleeps well - hopefully, it stays this way. i'm tandem nursing the 2 children - even though it feels slightly weird to be nursing #1 coz of her size. overnight, she just seem to have 'grown up' - she now lies on my lap awkwardly but nevertheless, i still enjoy the bonding time and her sweet smile when she detaches and say 'mmm... i love mommy's milk - so yummy!'... with her, i don't need to be a slave to the pump because she helps to relieve my engorgement & clear the milk ducts - this allows me to have abundance of milk for both of them - evident from the weight that #2 is clearly putting o...